‘All Empires Fall’ | ‘Foundation’ Season 2 Premieres July 14th

While several of Apple’s hit TV series’ on Apple TV+ have been delayed due to the ongoing writers’ strike, the good news is that it looks like Apple’s flagship sci-fi series, Foundation, isn’t one of them.

Most likely, this is simply because season 2 of Foundation was already in the can before the 2023 Writers Guild of America strike began. After all, a legendary galaxy-spanning saga doesn’t get written and filmed overnight. Plus, Apple has been teasing its second season since early last year. The Apple TV app has also hinted at a summer debut for several months.

Today, Apple released an official teaser for Foundation’s second season, and it looks like it’s going to be every bit as epic as we’d hoped.

Based on Isaac Asimov’s iconic sci-fi novels of the same name, Foundation is one of the most ambitious shows that Apple has undertaken for Apple TV+. When we first heard about the project over five years ago, it created some serious buzz. Many wondered whether Apple could succeed in producing a series when so many others had failed to bring Asimov’s vision to the big screen.

The original Foundation books have become one of the pillars of the science fiction genre, inspiring a generation of works from Star Wars to Star Trek. As a result, writers and studios from 21st Century Fox to Warner Bros. have tried to capture the magic of Asimov’s work and translate it into a more visual medium. Even media powerhouse HBO once tried to develop its own series based on Asimov’s novels, but it never got off the ground, despite having Interstellar co-writer and Westworld executive producer Jonathan Nolan at the helm.

That’s not surprising when you consider the staggering scope of what Asimov covered in his novels. The Foundation books cover a galaxy-sprawling empire that encompasses millions of inhabited worlds with a total population of 500 quadrillion people. As if that’s not large enough in scope, the story Asimov tells also takes place over thousands of years. As a writer, Asimov was more interested in the concepts and ideas of the Galactic Empire than the individual characters who lived and died throughout its long history. It’s not hard to imagine how challenging that can be to turn into a television screenplay.

Hence, when Apple’s plans for its Foundation series came to light, many doubted that even a company with pockets as deep as Apple’s could pull it off. However, many critics agreed that if Apple could achieve such a feat, it could be the series to rival HBO’s “Game of Thrones” in narrative complexity and scope as well as for its production values.

Apple’s ace in the hole in creating the Foundation TV series turned out to be Executive Producer David S. Goyer. Known for his work on the Terminator reboot, The Dark Knight, Batman Begins, and Ghost Rider, Goyer decided to eschew the “purist” approach to Asimov’s works. Instead, he interpreted Asimov’s original vision a bit more freely to create a story that was much more engaging and compelling.

Fans of Asimov’s novels have already noticed how loosely Foundation is based on Asimov’s work. While it takes place in the same universe with the same overall concepts and characters, it tells a fundamentally different story — but arguably a much better one.

The monumental adaptation of “Foundation” chronicles the stories of four crucial individuals transcending space and time as they overcome deadly crises, shifting loyalties and complicated relationships that will ultimately determine the fate of humanity.

Apple

One of Goyer’s most significant challenges was establishing a consistent roster of interesting characters. After all, nobody wants to see a whole new cast every few episodes when the storyline jumps decades ahead, and earlier characters are relegated to history. Goyer built his adaption of Asimov’s work around the idea that the same core cast would need to appear across episodes and even whole seasons, creating plot devices to ensure that continuity.

For instance, the “genetic dynasty” of Emperors is found nowhere in Asimov’s original works; Emperor Cleon appeared only in the prequels of the Foundation books. In Apple’s Foundation series, that character instead becomes a series of clones that exist across hundreds of years, with Lee Pace starring in the leading role. Similarly, Goyer also finds ways to convincingly bring Hari Seldon, Gaal Dornick, and Salvor Hardin across the centuries.

What’s Coming in Season 2

If you caught even part of the first season of Foundation, you probably already know that the series is intended to span the centuries-long decline of the Galactic Empire. Season 1 already covered several decades of that, and Season 2 takes place another 100 years later.

Apple shared the cast for season two last year, noting that most of the main characters will be back for the second season, including Jarred Harris (“Hari Seldon”), Lee Pace (“Brother Day”), Lou Llobell (“Gaal Dornick”), Leah Harvey (“Salvor Hardin”), Laura Birn (“Demerzel”), Terrence Mann (“Brother Dusk”), and Cassian Bilton (“Brother Dawn”), while introducing at least ten new significant characters throughout the second season.

It’s a colorful list of characters that includes clerics, traders, politicians, generals, warlords, and a new Queen, setting the stage for what will undoubtedly be an exciting second season.

The new season will have the same ten-episode run as the first one and takes place over a century after the first season’s finale. A lot has happened in those hundred years, including the rise of a “vengeful queen” (played by Ella-Rae Smith) plotting to destroy the Galactic Empire from within. Meanwhile, the original Foundation that left for the Outer Reach in season 1 has moved into a “religious phase,” forming and promulgating the Church of Seldon at the edges of the Empire, ultimately foments a Second Crisis and war.

Foundation returns for season 2 on Apple TV+ with a single episode debuting on July 14, 2023, followed by a new episode every Friday.